Friday, March 18, 2016

A Happy Day on the Hill. Several Years Later and I Still See There Is Hope For the Flowers in Memory of Sandy Hook

The highlight of the DC trip this year was walking into Representative Larson's office and seeing that he still has a copy of Hope for the Flowers on his shelf that I gave him the year after the tragedy near Newtown and before the initiation of the Newtown Poetry Project. I am still proud to have released 600 copies of Trina Paulus's book as inspiration throughout southern Connecticut.

On the way out of his office, too, I was thrilled to see copies of CWP-Fairfield's POW! Power of Words, the Anthology - a collection of student and teacher writing also displayed for visitors to see. Larson is a good man and he went out of his way to meet with us yesterday on the Hill. Our entourage had a spectacular day and we couldn't ask for more gorgeous weather. Yes, we did have to springboard from one end of the Capital to the other, but it was so nice that we forgot about all the walking. We are one of the few states that can claim 100% support from our senators and representatives.
My quote for the day was, "Man, Representative Larson, are you Irish!" He had on his green, and with his white hair and white eyebrows, his ancestry definitely showed. It was wonderful to spend a part of St. Patrick's Day with him.

We were also fortunate to spent time in the offices of Himes, Esty, DeLauro, Blumenthal, Murphy, and Courtney. They know a lot about the National Writing Project and are huge fans. With their support, we are hopeful to have an opportunity to continue competing for funds that can be used to advance literacy instruction through Supporting Effective Educator Development grants.

And after 4 hours of meetings this morning, I get to take a 5 hour train ride home (back to the office this guy goes!).